Members of Wicklow County Council were warned yesterday that they have six months to agree on accommodation sites for travellers. If agreement has not been reached by then, the county manager might make the decisions on behalf of the council. The warning came as members debated a report entitled "Accommodation of Travelling Families: a five-year strategy", which was drawn up by the council's housing department.
The report identified the need for radical action on housing travellers and acknowledged that only two permanent sites, at Bray and Wicklow, have been established. The report also noted that while the numbers of "transient" travellers - those who visit or pass through the county, for the most part in the summer months - can swell the travelling population 10fold, there are no transient halting sites in the county.
Councillors were told the situation has led to a large number of illegal halting sites in the north of the county and that legal fees incurred while acquiring court injunctions to move travellers on could not be sustained.
Council official Mr Michael Nicholson told members that out of 75 families there were 23 "indigenous Wicklow families" which had to be accommodated. The council's preference was for small group housing schemes rather than halting sites. Group schemes were needed in Bray, in the Bray Urban Council and Wicklow County areas, and in the Greystones, Kilcoole, Kilpedder, Rocky Valley, Baltinglass and Arklow areas. Should the councillors not decide on the exact locations of the housing schemes, the county manager could, after six months, decide where the schemes were to be located.
The establishment of facilities for transient travellers was a separate issue which would also have to be addressed, according to Mr Nicholson. His report drew attention to the Greystones area which has a need for facilities for three travelling families, but which rises in the summer months to a need for facilities for 30 families.
Urging councillors to "bite the bullet", Mr Liam Kavanagh (Labour) said some areas of Co Wicklow seemed to take the attitude that they could move travellers at the expense of other areas.
However, Mr George Jones (Fine Gael) warned that "the statistics for the projected number of travellers living on the sides of the roads in Co Wicklow are frightening". He instanced a number of occasions where travellers had been housed but had left their accommodation. "The county manager thinks he can deal with it, but I don't think it is as simple as that".